


Grocery Stores and a Crying Riley

by argentscoyote



Series: About Riley [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: F/M, Protective Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 17:32:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8632249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentscoyote/pseuds/argentscoyote
Summary: Sam has no idea how to calm the crying, screaming baby at the grocery store.





	

Sam Winchester is exhausted.

Then again, when is he not? It's a tiring lifestyle, one he learned to accept a long time ago, but that doesn't change the fact that his eyes are threatening to shut and he's holding back on what he thinks is his tenth yawn within twelve minutes as he wanders through the aisles of the grocery store. It doesn't help that Dean woke him up by _literally jumping on him_ before rattling off on a possession Jody Mills was dealing with and how she kindly asked if they could help her out. They figured it was a demon. The journey to finding out that it was actually a ghost was much more complicated and troublesome than Sam would've liked it to be. And of course, to add to the whole glory of it all, after the hard work of fighting for their lives once again, digging up at least three different graves before finally burning the body and sending that ghost into sweet oblivion, Dean wants pie. And since Sam is in desperate need of a Red Bull, he's on the food run while Dean waits in the car.

It's the first time he's ever been to this store, and he has no idea where anything is. He's found his Red Bull and is so damn tempted to just open it and drink it right then and there, but he has to pay first, and Dean's pie is nowhere to be found. He wonders towards the back of the store, somewhere between the cleaning supplies and candy section, and he stops in search for an employee he can ask. He looks left. Right. Ahead. Behind. With a groan of frustration, Sam realizes he's the only one around.

He starts to move to walk away and continue his search for Dean's goddamn pie when he sees it. A little kid, pretty much a toddler that looks like he's just learned how to work, is stumbling towards him. Sam stops and looks around for a parent or a nanny or anyone who's in charge of this child, but Sam is the only adult around. He looks down again as the boy giggles as his little chubby legs quickly take him forward. He can't look up, so he can't see the giant standing in front of him, but he does catch the sight of shoes so he walks faster and reaches out his equally tiny chubby hands. The waddling slowly turns into stumbling, and it's a slow motion moment of _oh shit_ when disaster strikes and Sam realizes the kid is losing his balance. Sam dashes forward, but the little one has knocked his head on one of the display cases and is flat on his bum before Sam can even reach him.

The cries start almost immediately.

"Hey, hey," Sam says in a soft but panicked voice as he kneels beside the kid. The boy looks up at him, thick, dark eyelashes already drenched in tears. "It's okay. It's okay – oh, no, don't do that. Please don't cry. I don't know where your mom is. No, no, no, please don't cry or I'll have to – dammit."

He screams and wails and cries, and he holds his arms up at Sam as if this man in front of him is not a stranger who could possibly be dangerous. Sam looks around again, praying the mom or dad will appear and make it better because he doesn't know how to do this. He can't just pick up the kid because _come on_ , when has a guy in his thirties picking up a baby that's not his ever ended well? But the cries aren't stopping, and the kid is clearly in pain and in desperate need of comfort. With a silent prayer, Sam reaches out and picks up the little one with ease.

The wailing slows down a bit as Sam bounces him up and down while hushing him in a slow, smooth voice. "It's okay, we'll find your mom." But the toddler is still crying, and no matter how Sam bounces him or hushes him or even smacks the display case and says "naughty!" the kid won't stop crying. There's a dummy attached to the baby's shirt, and Sam prays with everything holy and unholy that this'll work as he wipes the dummy – just in case – and pops it into the kid's mouth. He's calm almost immediately. Sam breathes a sigh of a relief. "Thank God."

All pain seems to be eased as large, brown eyes catch sight of Sam's ever-present stubble, and hands immediately dart out to feel the roughness. Sam's frozen instantly, unsure of what to do as tiny hands rub against his facial hair. He watches as the baby's expression grows wide with wonder as he feels the smooth part of Sam's cheek, and then the rough part of it – and then he giggles and it's possibly the cutest sound Sam has ever heard. With the dummy still in his mouth, the baby smiles and giggles and continues to rub his hand against Sam's face, and it's all Sam can do not to smile back.

The kid is probably around ten or eleven months, with caramel skin and wide hazel eyes that are framed by eyelashes that are too thick and too dark to belong to such a young child. He's possibly the most beautiful baby Sam has ever seen, and for a moment he's lost in the world of purity and innocence that lingers in those baby browns.

And then he hears the frantic shouting of a woman, and he's snapped back to reality.

"Riley? Riley?! Nugget, where are you? Riley!"

Sam looks up, his stubble now out of the boy's reach, and watches as a short woman with golden hair runs as she looks down the aisles. There's a blue baby bag on her shoulder, and Sam can see nappies poking out of the side pocket. He starts walking towards her the moment she notices him. Her eyes go wide with panic as Sam realizes once again, oh shit, and she practically sprints and yanks Riley straight out of Sam's hands.

"What the hell are you doing?! Get away from my son!" She shouts, holding Riley to her chest, hand over his head, and walks backward to put as much space between her and this giant.

Sam's hands are up in surrender and he's already stuttering out apologies and an explanation before she has the chance to run away. "I'm sorry, I was just standing there and he was walking and then he was falling and he hit his head and I didn't do anything, I swear it, but I couldn't find a parent or anything and he wouldn't stop crying so I picked him up. I swear I did nothing else."

The woman, who, now that's she closer, looks like she's not even thirty, eyes him skeptically. Sam steps back and swears on his life that he did nothing and that he'd never do anything, and apologies once again. Her expression is stern, kind of like a protective mama bear. She's completely unfazed by Riley pulling on her shirt. "You swear you didn't do anything to my kid?" Her voice is suspicious like she doesn't believe him.

Sam nods. "I swear."

"And if I didn't come running you would've looked for me to give him back to me?"

He nods again, and even holds up the scout's honor. "I swear."

She gives him one last look, and even gives him a once over before she gives him a curt nod of her head. "Well, thank you for calming him down. And for not stealing him."

She's not smiling, but Sam is taken back by the gratitude that he can tell is sincere in her voice. He's even more so when she removes her hand from Riley's head and moves him so he rests on her hip. It appears she does believe him. "You're welcome."

It's then that he actually notices what she looks like for the first time. The girl in front of him has curly golden hair weaved into a braid with bright blue eyes that are so striking that at the first glimpse of them Sam's mind goes _woah_. Looking at her with her baby, Sam doesn't see the resemblance. But then she smiles, and he can see it. They have the same smile. And the same nose.

She moves to rearrange the bag on her shoulder, and Sam can see it's clearly heavy by the way her face scrunches. He steps forward, and she almost immediately takes a step back, alert and aware of any potential danger, so he stops. "Can I help you with your bag?" He asks carefully, not daring to move until she looks comfortable again.

She eyes him again like she's about to decline, but Riley is squirming and she can't hold him and rearrange the position of the bag at the same time. So she shrugs it off and hands it to him. She blushes as she does so, and Sam almost grins at the sight. "Thank you."

He takes the bag, and almost immediately drops it. "Holy – what is in this thing?" He asks with a laugh as he slips it onto his shoulder. The thing weighs almost as much as the duffle full of arsenal they have in the Impala.

She looks down, and the tint of red that gloss over her cheeks darkens. "What can I say? My kid's got allot of stuff."

Sam raises an eyebrow at her, but she's too busy with Riley to notice. She turns around and starts walking in the same direction she dashed from, so he follows her, quick to get into a pace next to her.

"I'm Sam, by the way," he says, holding out her hand. She stares at it, almost as if she's unsure, but takes it anyway.

"Emmeline."

Emmeline. It's a pretty name, one he's never heard before. And he's heard of allot of names.

"How old is he?" Sam nods his head towards Riley, who's still yanking at his mother's shirt.

Emmeline pulls her top up so Riley doesn't pull it too far down and expose her to the entire store. "Eleven months in two days."

"Wow," Sam breathes, eyes trained on the boy. "He's really fast for eleven months."

Emmeline laughs at that and nods in agreement. "He's always running off. I can barely keep up."

She seems a bit easy now, a bit more comfortable and calm. Sam is glad.

When they reach the cashier, a line of angry people wait behind an almost empty cart while the cashier is void of expression. All she does is blow a bubble until it pops while a bunch of impatient people yells out complaints. Emmeline immediately apologizes and finishes off emptying her cart. Sam helps her since Riley is such a hand full. He notices how little and how odd her shopping is. Powder, nappies, tuna, and home-brand bread. She stifles through her pursue, and he can see the stress on her features as she literally counts her pennies to see if she has enough money to pay. She does. Sam was willing to pay for her if she hadn't.

Before he knows it she's paid and all packed up. She takes Riley's bag from him and puts in the cart, and thanks him one last time for not stealing her child. He laughs.

"Goodbye, Sam," she bids him farewell as she walks away, Riley wiggling around in his seat in the cart.

"Goodbye, Emmeline." He waves to Riley, who smiles and moves his arm about as if to wave back, which only makes Sam grin. "Bye, Riley."

He watches her walk away, watches as Riley looks up at her with the same wonder in his eyes as he did when he touched Sam's stubble, before the two of them disappear out of the door.

Sam forgets he's tired. He also forgets Dean's pie.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Imagine Emmeline as Elsa Pataky.


End file.
